point of corruption in which purity appears ridiculous, and modesty was
treated with contempt.

Married at twenty years of age to a daughter of Maria Theresa of
Austria, the young prince had continued until his accession to the
throne in his life of domestic retirement, study, and isolation. Europe
was slumbering in a disgraceful peace. War, that exercise of princes,
could not thus form him by contact with men and the custom of command.
Fields of battle, which are the theatre of great actors of his stamp,
had not brought him under the observation of his people. No _prestige_,
except the circumstance of birth, clung to him. His sole popularity was
derived from the disgust inspired by his grandfather. He occasionally
had the esteem of his people, but never their favour. Upright and
well-informed, he called to him sterling honesty and clear intelligence
in the person of Turgot. But with the philosophic sentiment of the
necessity of reforms, the prince had not the feeling of a reformer; he
had neither the genius nor the boldness; nor had his ministers more than
himself. They raised all questions without settling any, accumulated
storms, without giving them any impulse, and the tempests were doomed to
be eventually directed against themselves. From M. de Maurepas to M.
Turgot, from M. Turgot to M. de Calonne, from M. de Calonne to M.
Necker, from M. Necker to M. de Malesherbes, he floated from an honest
man to an _intriguant_, from a philosopher to a banker, whilst the
spirit of system and charlatanism ill supplied the spirit of government.
God, who had given many men of notoriety during this reign, had refused
it a statesman; all was promise and deception. The court clamoured,
impatience seized on the nation, and violent convulsions followed. The
Assembly of Notables, States General, National Assembly, had all burst
in the hands of royalty; a revolution emanated from his good intentions
more fierce and more irritable than if it had been the consequence of